No matter what happens in Tuesday’s primary none of the losing gubernatorial candidates will be without a job on Wednesday.
All of them, including the two winning candidates, still can count on their public-funded paychecks that they collect from the elected offices they currently hold.
Republican Tom Corbett has his attorney general’s job and his GOP primary challenger, Sam Rohrer, has his state House seat.
On the Democratic ballot, Dan Onorato has his Allegheny County's executive post; Tony Williams, his state Senate seat; Jack Wagner, his auditor general's job; and Joe Hoeffel, his Montgomery County commissioner seat.
But some government reform advocates don't think that is fair to taxpayers.
"You can't claim you're working a full-time job on behalf of the people while simultaneously running a full-time campaign on behalf of yourself," said Eric Epstein of RockTheCapital.org.
Tim Potts of Democracy Rising PA said he views getting elected to an office as a contract with the voters.
"They gave you a vote in exchange for you to serve [the full term of office]," Potts said. "If you do not serve [the full term], you owe them a better explanation than, 'I just want to take another step to the next rung on the political ladder.' "
If either Wagner or Corbett is elected, Potts said it becomes more unfair because it puts the next governor, and not voters, in charge of naming their successor to finish out their term.
Potts and Epstein are among those calling for the state to enact a law requiring elected officials to resign if they want to pursue another office.
Two gubernatorial candidates who responded indicated a modicum of interest in having such a law.
Corbett said, "I would certainly take a look at it particularly if it applied to everybody, including the state representatives and state senators."
Wagner suggested the issue could be addressed at a constitutional convention, which he supports having.
Onorato and Hoeffel don't support a resign-to-run law. Onorato considers it unnecessary. Hoeffel suggested serving in elected office is a way to develop the leadership skills needed for a higher office.
Neither Rohrer nor Williams responded to calls seeking their position.
Five states — Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii and Texas — have laws that prohibit certain public officials from using their elected office as a launching pad to seek a higher office.
Pennsylvania's executive branch agencies place some restrictions on employees who want to run for office.
At agencies under the governor's office and the auditor general and treasurer's offices, employees must notify the human resources office if they intend to run and get agency approval.
Those policies, however, do not apply to their elected officer in charge.
Wagner's office said he has never barred any employee from running for public office during his tenure as auditor general.
The attorney general's office has a 12-year-old policy that calls for an employee to resign if they are seeking a public office that carries a salary of more than $10,000, but gives the attorney general sole discretion to modify that rule.
Since his election as attorney general in 2004, Corbett said he has granted permission for three employees to seek a countywide office but required them to take leave to campaign. The two employees who were unsuccessful in their election bids were allowed to return to their posts, said Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley.
Corbett said that his office used to have a resign-to-run policy in place. He enacted it in 1995, when he was appointed to the attorney general's post after elected attorney general Ernie Preate resigned.
Preate stepped down after pleading guilty to mail fraud charges related to his taking and hiding campaign contributions from poker-machine distributors during his first run for attorney general in 1989.
"At the time of that policy when we put it in ... I thought it was necessary," Corbett said. "Mike Fisher [who became attorney general in 1997] obviously changed the policy thereafter, and we haven't changed it back."
State Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Philadelphia, said she considers a resign-to-run law worth discussing. She has similar legislation pending that would prohibit the state's attorney general from running for governor until four years after leaving office to avoid potential conflicts.
"We should have people who want to be the attorney general who don't want to use that for a stepping stone for something else," she said.
Christopher Borick, a Muhlenberg College political science professor, agrees that an argument can be made for enacting a resign-to-run law to avoid the distractions and potential conflicts.
He cited Corbett's decision to join in the multistate lawsuit challenging the federal health care reform law promoted by President Barack Obama as an example of the blurring of lines that can occur.
"How can you untangle his role as the chief law enforcement officer who says he has an obligation [to challenge the health care law] with someone who is running for governor," he said. "It's going to be messy. ... The only way to ever prevent that from ever occurring is to have one of these laws."